In the history of Test cricket weve been blessed with some incredible batsmen. From guys like Bradman, Headley and Hobbs to modern greats like Tendulkar, Lara and Ponting. One man that often gets ignored in lists of the great batsmen is the South African opener, Barry Richards. He could have gone down as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all-time, but due to the International ban on South African sport just after his Test debut, he was unable to make a real impact on Test cricket.
Barry Richards started playing cricket as a young lad in the streets of his home town, Durban. Richards has talked about his time playing street cricket as being the catalyst for him developing his superb level of skill. Richards often played with older boys, and said that once you got your chance to bat you had to make the most of it, as you could go a couple of weeks before getting another chance. After developing his basic skills on the streets of Durban, he went on to play Schools cricket, and was very successful. Richards played on a tour of England with the best players from all the schools in South Africa, and his team were dominant. They comprehensively beat every English School team they played, and according to Richards even gave some County 2nd XI sides a good run for their money.
Richards First Class career started in 1965, but it took him 2 seasons to really make his mark on FC cricket. In Richards 3rd season of South African Domestic cricket, he made 553 runs at a very good average of 50.27 with 1 hundred and 5 fifties. The season after that he managed to convert more of his fifties, making 4 hundreds in the 67/68 season. This caught the attention of County Cricket, leading him to go to England in 1968 to play FC cricket.
Richards had a good first year in England, making over 2000 runs in the 33 games he played that season, scoring 5 hundreds, including his first professional double hundred. Richards continued this superb form across the next 2 years, before making his Test debut in a series against Australia, in South Africa. The South African side that Richards found himself in is regarded as one of the greatest Test teams of all-time. The team included not only Richards, but superb players like Graeme Pollock, Mike Proctor, Peter Pollock, Eddie Barlow and many more great names.
Barry Richards somewhat failed in his first Test, making starts in both innings, with scores of 29 and 32, but he made sure he capitalised on his chance in the Test side in the 2nd match at Durban. On the first day of this Test Match, Richards played one of the most incredible innings ever seen in Test cricket. Richards put the Australian bowling attack to the sword and would have had a hundred before lunch, but sneaky tactics from Bill Lawry, and the run out of Ali Bacher scuppered those chances. Richards still managed to make it to 96* at Lunch, but it was what occurred after lunch that enthralled the Durban crowds most.
In the hour straight after lunch, Barry Richards and Graeme Pollock destroyed the Australian bowling attack. They made over 100 runs between them in that first hour, in what was a showcase of timing and power. There was no slogging on show though, it was all glorious strokeplay from 2 unsung geniuses in the history of this superb game we call Cricket. Richards eventually got out for 140, bowled by Freeman, but his impression on the world game was made.
Richards went on to score 1 more hundred in that series, and made a total of 508 runs at an average of 72.57. It was a glorious way to enter Test cricket, but his chances of going on to form a long Test career were ended when South Africa were removed from International Sport. The South African team of that era tried their hardest to get back into International cricket, agreeing to allow 2 non-whites to be part of the team on the condition that they were good enough, but the Government rejected the proposal, and South Africa and Barry Richards fate was sealed.
After the realisation that hed never play Test cricket sunk in, Richards decided to go and play First Class cricket around the world, playing in England, South Africa and Australia. In the period after his final Test, Barry Richards played First Class cricket for 12 years. In that time he made 19266 runs at a brilliant average of 51.37. In 1970 in Australia, in his prime, playing Sheffield Shield cricket, he averaged over 100, scoring 1536 runs in 10 games, with 6 hundreds. One of those hundreds, he turned into 356 from 381 balls, against a Western Australian side that included Lillee, McKenzie and Lock. What makes that triple hundred even more remarkable is the fact that he made 325 of those runs in 1 day. It would be incredible enough in the modern era, but back in the 70s, days used to consist of just 5 hours, with only an hour and a half for the first session, so to score over 300 in a day is testament to how good Richards really was.
Richards is also incredibly highly rated by his peers, and people that saw him bat throughout his career. Graeme Pollock rates Richards alongside Sobers as the 2 greatest players he's seen play, played with or played against. He is described by Mike Proctor as 'the perfect batsman' and was his choice as someone to bat for your life. Greg Chappell rates Richards as the most technically correct and complete batsman he's ever seen. Former South African Captain Ali Bacher rates him as one of the best players the worlds ever seen. The best summary of Barry Richards comes from Christopher Martin Jenkins who sums Barry Richards up perfectly. "It's the style more than the achievements with Barry Richards, and his ability to score runs on difficult tracks in difficult circumstances that put him way ahead of everyone around him"
That quote from Martin Jenkins is the perfect way to describe one of the finest Opening Batsmen weve ever seen. He was technically perfect, was capable of scoring runs on any track against any bowling attack and on his day was simply unstoppable. If only hed had the chance to play 70+ Test Matches, who knows what he would have achieved.
Here are Barry Richards FC Statistics also:
Code:
Season Matches Inns Not Out Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct
1965 (England) 1 1 0 59 59 59.00 0 1 0
1965-66 (South Africa) 7 11 1 427 77 42.70 0 5 3
1966-67 (South Africa) 7 12 1 553 107 50.27 1 5 6
1967-68 (South Africa) 6 11 1 675 146 67.50 4 1 3
1968 (England) 33 55 5 2395 206 47.90 5 18 37
1968-69 (South Africa) 8 15 2 763 112* 58.69 1 7 5
1969 (England) 20 31 6 1440 155 57.60 5 5 17
1969-70 (South Africa) 10 18 2 1172 169 73.25 6 3 9
1970 (England) 20 33 2 1667 153 53.77 3 12 15
1970-71 (Australia) 10 16 2 1538 356 109.85 6 3 10
1970-71 (South Africa) 1 2 0 207 140 103.50 1 1 0
1971 (England) 24 45 4 1938 141* 47.26 2 17 34
1971-72 (South Africa) 8 15 1 1089 219 77.78 4 4 4
1972 (England) 19 33 1 1425 118 44.53 4 8 28
1972-73 (South Africa) 10 19 1 1247 197 69.27 5 5 9
1973 (England) 18 30 2 1452 240 51.85 5 4 35
1973-74 (South Africa) 12 18 2 1285 186* 80.31 4 8 12
1974 (England) 19 27 4 1406 225* 61.13 4 6 23
1974-75 (South Africa) 11 21 2 891 162 46.89 4 3 9
1975 (England) 19 32 5 1621 135* 60.03 3 13 22
1975-76 (South Africa) 11 21 4 1051 159 61.82 3 5 12
1976 (England) 18 34 2 1572 179 49.12 7 3 32
1977 (England) 16 25 3 927 115 42.13 2 5 19
1978 (England) 6 11 0 337 73 30.63 0 2 8
1981-82 (South Africa) 9 16 4 475 87* 39.58 0 3 7
1982-83 (South Africa) 11 17 1 590 123 36.87 1 4 6
[B]Career record:[/B] 339 576 58 28358 356 54.74 80 152
